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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



ROBERT BROWNING'S WORKS. 



Poems and Dramas. 2 volumes 

SoRDELLO, Strafford, Christmas-Eve, and Easter-Day — 

Dramatis Person^e 1 

Men and Women i 

The Ring and the Book. 2 volumes 3 

Balaustion's Adventure i 

FiFiNE AT the Fair, etc i 

Red Cotton Night-Cap Country; or. Turf and Towers., i 
Aristophanes' Apology. Being the Last Adventure of Balaus- 

tion I 

The Inn Album i 

Pacchiarotto and Other Poems i 

Agamemnon, La Saisiaz, Two Poets of Croisic, Pauline 

and Dramatic Idyls (first and second series) i 

The foregoing 14 volumes 21 

Half calf, 14 volumes in 13 4° 



Poetical Works. New and uniform edition. 7 vols, crown 8vo. 12.00 
Half calf 2500 

Jocoseria. i6mo 

Lyrics of Life. lUusttated. Small 410 7S 

Favorite Poems. Illustrated. This, with Mrs. Browning's 
"Lady Geraldine"s Courtship" and Mr. Stedman's Essay on 
Mrs. I3ro\vning, forms " Modern Classics" No. 12. 32mo 75 



HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & COMPANY, Publishers. 



JOCOSERIA. 



JOCOSERIA 



BY 

ROBERT miOWNING 





BOSTON 

HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY 

New York: 11 East Seventeenth Street 



a^ 



The Riverside Press, Cambridge'. 
Electrotyped and printed by H. O. Houghton & Co. 



CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

Wanting is — what? 7 

Donald 11 

Solomon and Balkis 25 

Cristina and Monaldeschi 33 

Mary Wollstonecraft and Fuseli .... 43 

Adam, Lilitii, and Eve 47 

IxioN 51 

Jochanan IIakkado^H 63 

Never the Time and the Place . . . .109 

Pambo 113 



WANTING IS — WHAT? 



Wanting is — what ? 
Summer redundant, 
Blueness abundant, 

— Where is the spot ? 

Beamy the world, yet a blank all the same, 

— Framework which waits for a picture to frame : 
What of the leafage, what of the flower ? 
Roses embowering with nought they embower I 
Come then, complete incompletion, O comer. 
Pant through the blueness, perfect the summer ! 
Breathe but one breath 

Rose-beauty above. 
And all that was death 
Grows life, grows love, 
Grows love 1 



DONALD. 



DONALD. 



"Will you hear my story also, 

— Huge Sport, brave adventure in plenty ? " 
The boys were a band from Oxford, 
The oldest of whom was twenty. 

The bothy we held carouse in 
Was bright with fire and candle ; 

Tale followed tale like a merry-go-round 
Whereof Sport turned the handle. 

In our eyes and noses — turf-smoke : 
In our ears a tune from the trivet. 

Whence " Boiling, boiling," the kettle sang, 
" And ready for fresh Glenlivet." 

So, feat capped feat, with a vengeance : 
Truths, though, — the lads were loyal : 
" Grouse, five score brace to the bag ! 
Deer, ten hours' stalk of the Royal ! " 

Of boasting, not one bit, boys ! 
Only there seemed to settle 



14 JOCOSERIA. 

Somehow above your curly heads, 

— Plain through the singing kettle, 

Palpable through the cloud, 
As each new-puffed Havanna 

Rewarded the teller's well-told tale, — 
This vaunt '" To Sport — Hosanna ! 

" Hunt, fish, shoot. 

Would a man fulfil life's duty ! 
Not to the bodily frame alone 

Does Sport give Strength and beauty, 

" But character gains in — courage ? 
Ay, Sir, and much beside it ! 
You don't sport, more 's the pity : 
You soon would find, if you tried it. 

" Good sportsman means good fellow, 
Sound-hearted he, to the centre ; 
Your mealy-mouthed mild milksops 

— There 's where the rot can enter ! 

" There 's where the dirt will breed, 

The shabbiness Sport would banish ! 
Oh no, Sir, no ! In your honored case 
All such objections vanish. 



DONALD. 



15 



'T is known how hard you studied : 
A Double-First — what, the jigger! 

Give me but half your Latin and Greek, 
I '11 never again touch trigger ! 



'&&*■ 



" Still, tastes are tastes, allow me ! 

Allow, too, where there 's keenness 
For Sport, there 's little likelihood 
Of a man's displaying meanness ! " 

So, put on my mettle, I interposed. 
" Will )-ou hear my story ? " quoth I. 
" Never mind how long since it happed, 
I sat, as we sit, in a bothy ; 

" With as merry a band of mates, too, 
Undergrads all on a level ; 
(One 's a Bishop, one 's gone to the Bench, 
And one 's gone — well, to the Devil.) 

" When, lo, a scratching and tapping ! 
In hobbled a ghastly visitor. 
Listen to just what he told us himself 
— No need of our playing inquisitor ! " 



1 6 yOCOSERIA. 

Do you happen to know in Ross-shire 
Mount Ben . . . but the name scarce matters 

Of the naked fact I am sure enough, 
Though I clothe it in rags and tatters. 

You may recognize Ben by description ; 

Behind him — a moor's immenseness : 
Up goes the middle mount of a range, 

Fringed with its firs in denseness. 

Rimming the edge, its fir-fringe, mind ! 

For an edge there is, though narrow ; 
From end to end of the range, a stripe 

Of path runs straight as an arrow. 

And the mountaineer who takes that path 

Saves himself miles of journey 
He has to plod if he crosses the moor 

Through heather, peat, and burnie. 

But a mountaineer he needs must be, 
For, look you, right in the middle 

Projects bluff Ben — with an end in ich — 
Why planted there, is a riddle : 

Since all Ben's brothers little and big 
Keep rank, set shoulder to shoulder, 



DONALD. 1/ 

And only this burliest out must bulge 
Till it seems — to the beholder 

From down in the gully, — as if Ben's breast, 

To a sudden spike diminished, 
Would signify to the boldest foot 

" All further passage finished ! " 

Yet the mountaineer who sidles on 

And on to the very bending. 
Discovers, if heart and brain be proof, 

No necessary ending. 

Foot up, foot down, to the turn abrupt 

Having trod, he, there arriving. 
Finds — what he took for a point was breadth, 

A mercy of Nature's contriving. 

So, ho rounds what, when 't is reached, proves 
straight. 

From one side gains the other : 
The wee path widens — resume the march, 

And he foils you, Ben, my brother ! 

But Donald — (that name, I hope, will do) — 
I wrong him if I call " foiling " 



1 8 yOCOSERIA. 

The tramp of the callant, whistling the while 
As blithe as our kettle's boilinof. 



He had dared the danger from boyhood up, 
And now, — when perchance was waiting 

A lass at the brig below, — 'twixt mount 
And moor would he stand debating ? 

Moreover this Donald was twenty-five, 

A glory of bone and muscle : 
Did a fiend dispute the right. of way, 

Donald would try a tussle. 

Lightsomely marched he out of the broad 

On to the narrow and narrow ; 
A step more, rounding the angular rock, 

Reached the front straight as an arrow. 

He stepped it, safe on the ledge he stood, 
When — whom found he full-facing ? 

What fellow in courage and wariness too, 
Had scouted ignoble pacing, 

And left low safety to timid mates. 
And made for the dread dear danger, 

And gained the height where — who could guess 
He would meet with a rival ranger ? 



DONALD. 19 

'T was a gold-red stag that stood and stared, 

Gigantic and magnific, 
By the wonder — ay, and the peril — struck 

Intelligent and pacific : 

For a red deer is no fallow deer 

Grown cowardly through park-feeding ; 

He batters you like a thunderbolt 
If you brave his haunts unheeding. 

I doubt he could hardly perform volte-face 

Had valor advised discretion : 
You may walk on a rope, but to turn on a rope 

No Blondin makes profession. 

Yet Donald must turn, would pride permit, 

Though pride ill brooks retiring : 
Each eyed each — mute man, motionless beast — 

Less fearing than admiring. 

These are the moments when quite new sense, 

To meet some need as novel, 
Springs up in the brain : it inspired resource : 

— " Nor advance nor retreat but — grovel ! " 

And slowly, surely, never a whit 
Relaxing the steady tension 



20 yOCOSERIA. 

Of eye-stare which binds man to beast, — 
By an inch and inch declension, 

Sank Donald sidewise down and down : 

Till flat, breast upwards, lying 
At his six-foot length, no corpse more still, 

— " If he cross me ! The trick 's worth trying." 

Minutes were an eternity ; 

But a new sense was created 
In the stag's brain too ; he resolves 1 Slow, sure. 

With eye-stare unabated. 

Feelingly he extends a foot 

Which tastes the way ere it touches 
Earth's solid and just escapes man's soft, 

Nor hold of the same unclutches 

Till its fellow foot, light as a feather whisk, 

Lands itself no less finely : 
So a mother removes a fly from the face 

Of her babe asleep supinely. 

And now 't is the haunch and hind foot's turn 

— That 's hard : can the beast quite raise it ? 
Yes, traversing half the prostrate length, 

His hoof-tip does not graze it. 



DONALD. 21 

Just one more lift ! But Donald, you see, 

Was sportsman first, man after : 
A fancy lightened his caution through, 

— He well-nigh broke into laughter : 

" It were nothing short of a miracle ! 

Unrivalled, unexampled — 
All sporting feats with this feat matched 

Were down and dead and trampled ! " 

The last of the legs as tenderly 

Follows the rest : or never 
Or now is the time ! His knife in reach, 

And his right-hand loose — how clever ! 

For this can stab up the stomach's soft, 
While the left-hand grasps the pastern. 

A rise on the elbow, and — now 's the time 
Or never : this turn 's the last turn ! 

I shall dare to place myself by God 
Who scanned — for He does — each feature 

Of the face thrown up in appeal to Him 
By the agonizing creature. 

Nay, I hear plain words : " Thy gift brings this ! " 
Up he sprang, back he staggered, 



22 yOCOSERIA. 

Over he fell, and with him our friend 
— At following game no laggard. 



'& &" 



Yet he was not dead when they picked next day 
From the gully's depth the wreck of him ; 

His fall had been stayed by the stag beneath 
Who cushioned and saved the neck of him. 

But the rest of his body — why, doctors said, 
Whatever could break was broken ; 

Legs, arms, ribs, all of him looked like a toast 
In a tumbler of port-wine soaken. 

" That your life is left you, thank the stag ! " 
Said they when — the slow cure ended — 

They opened the hospital-door, and thence 
— Strapped, spliced, main fractures mended. 

And minor damage left wisely alone, — 
Like an old shoe clouted and cobbled, 

Out — what went in a Goliath well-nigh, — 
Some half of a David hobbled. 

" You must ask an alms from house to house: 

Sell the stag's head for a bracket. 
With its grand twelve tines — I 'd buy it myself - 

And use the skin for a jacket ! " 



DONALD. 23 

He was wiser, made both head and hide 
His win-penny : hands and knees on, 

Would manage to crawl — poor crab — by the 
roads 
In the misty stalking-season. 

And if he discovered a bothy like this, 
Why, harvest was sure : folks listened. 

He told his tale to the lovers of Sport : 

Lips twitched, cheeks glowed, eyes glistened. 

And when he had come to the close, and spread 

His spoils for the gazers' wonder, 
With " Gentlemen, here 's the skull of the stag 

I was over, thank God, not under ! " — 

The company broke out in applause 

" By Jingo, a lucky cripple ! 
Have a munch of grouse and a hunk of bread, 

And a tug, besides, at our tipple ! " 

And ** There 's my pay for your pluck ! " cried 
This, 

" And mine for your jolly story ! " 
Cried That, while 'T other — but he was drunk — 

Hiccupped " A trump, a Tory ! " 



24 yOCOSERIA. 

I hope I gave twice as much as the rest; 

For, as Homer would say, " within gra.te 
Though teeth kept tongue," my whole soul growled 

" Rightly rewarded, — Ingrate ! " 



SOLOMON AND BALKIS. 



SOLOMON AND BALKIS. 



Solomon King of the Jews and the Queen of Sheba, 
Balkis, 

Talk on the ivory throne, and we well may conjec- 
ture their talk is 

Solely of things sublime : why else has she sought 
Mount Zion, 

Climbed the six golden steps, and sat betwixt lion 
and lion ? 

She proves him with hard questions : before she has 

reached the middle 
He smiling supplies the end, straight solves them 

riddle by riddle ; 
Until, dead-beaten at last, there is left no spirit in 

her, 
And thus would she close the game whereof she was 

first beginner : 



28 yOCOSERIA. 

" O wisest thou of the wise, world's marvel and well- 
nigh monster, 

One crabbed question more to construe or viilgo 
conster ! 

Who are those, of all mankind, a monarch of perfect 
wisdom 

Should open to, when they knock at sphetej-on do — 
that 's, his dome ? " 

The King makes tart reply: "Whom else but the 
wise his equals 

Should he welcome with heart and voice ? — since, 
king though he be, such weak walls 

Of circumstance — power and pomp — divide souls 
each from other 

That whoso proves kingly in craft I needs must ac- 
knowledge my brother. 

" Come poet, come painter, come sculptor, come 

builder — whate'er his condition. 
Is he prime in his art ? We are peers ! My insight 

has pierced the partition 
And hails — for the poem, the picture, the statue, 

the building — my fellow ! 
Gold 's gold though dim in the dust : court-polish 

soon turns it yellow. 



SOLOMON AND BALKIS. 29 

"But tell me in turn, O thou to thy weakling sex 

superior, 
That for knowledge hast travelled so far yet seemest 

no whit the wearier, — 
Who are those, of all mankind, a queen like thyself, 

consummate 
In wisdom, should call to her side with an affable 

' Up hither, come, mate ! ' " 

" The Good are my mates — how else ? Why doubt 

it ? " the Queen upbridled : 
" Sure even above the Wise, — or in travel my eyes 

have idled, — 
I see the Good stand plain : be they rich, poor, 

shrewd or simple, 
If Good they only are. . . . Permit me to drop my 

wimple ! " 

And, in that bashful jerk of her body, she — peace, 

thou scoffer ! — 
Jostled the King's right-hand stretched courteously 

help to proffer. 
And so disclosed a portent : all unaware the Prince 

eyed 
The Ring which bore the Name — turned outside 

now from inside ! 



30 yOCOSERIA. 

The truth-compelling Name ! — and at once "I greet 

the Wise — Oh, 
Certainly welcome such to my court — with this 

proviso : 
The building must be my temple, my person stand 

forth the statue, 
The picture my portrait prove, and the poem my 

praise — you cat, you ! " 

But Solomon nonplussed ? Nay ! " Be truthful in 
turn ! " so bade he : 

" See the Name, obey its best ! " And at once sub- 
joins the lady 

— ** Provided the Good are the young, men strong 
and tall and proper, 

Such servants I straightway enlist, — which means 
. . ." but the blushes stop her. 

"Ah, Soul," the Monarch sighed, "that wouldst soar 

yet ever crawlest, 
How comes it thou canst discern the greatest yet 

choose the smallest, 
Unless because heaven is far, where wings find fit 

expansion, 
While creeping on all-fours suits, suffices the earthly 

mansion ? 



SOLOMON AND BALKIS. 31 

" Aspire to the Best ! But which ? There are Bests 

and Bests so many, 
With a habitat each for each, earth's Best as much 

Best as any ! 
On Lebanon roots the cedar — soil lofty, yet stony 

and sandy — 
While hyssop, of worth in its way, on the wall grows 

low but handy. 

" Above may the Soul spread wing, spurn body and 

sense beneath her ; 
Below she must condescend to plodding unbuoyed 

by aether. 
In heaven I yearn for knowledge, account all else 

inanity ; 
On earth I confess an itch for the praise of fools — 

that 's Vanity. 

" It is nought, it will go, it can never presume above 

to trouble me ; 
But here, — why, it toys and tickles and teases, how- 

e'er I redouble me 
In a doggedest of endeavors to play the indifferent. 

Therefore, 
Suppose we resume discourse ? Thou hast travelled 

thus far : but wherefore ? 



32 yOCOSERIA. 

" Solely for Solomon's sake, to see whom earth styles 

Sages ? " 
Through her blushes laughed the Queen. " For the 

sake of a Sage ? The gay jest ! 
On high, be communion with Mind — there, Body 

concerns not Balkis : 
Down here, — do I make too bold ? Sage Solomon, 

— one fool's small kiss ! " 



CRISTINA AND MONALDESCHI. 



CRISTINA AND MONALDESCHI. 



Ah, but how each loved each, Marquis 1 
Here 's the gallery they trod 
Both together, he her god, 
She his idol, — lend your rod, 

Chamberlain ! — ay, there they are — " Quis 
Separabit ?" — plain those two 
Touching words come into view, 
Apposite for me and you 1 

Since they witness to incessant 

Love like ours : King Francis, he — 
Diane the adored one, she — 
Prototypes of you and me. 

Everywhere is carved her Crescent 
With his Salamander-sign — 
Flame-fed creature : flame benign 
To itself or, if malign, 



36 JOCOSERIA. 

Only to the meddling curious, 

— So, be warned. Sir ! Where 's my head ? 

How it wanders ! What I said 

Merely meant — the creature, fed 
Thus on flame, was scarce injurious 

Save to fools who woke its ire. 

Thinking fit to play with fire. 

'T is the Crescent you admire ? 

Then, be Diane ! I '11 be Francis. 

Crescents change, — true ! — wax and wane, 
Woman-like : male hearts retain 
Heat nor, once warm, cool again. 

So, we figure — such our chance is — 
I as man and you as . . . What ? 
Take offence ? My Love forgot 
He plays woman, I do not ? 

I — the woman ? See my habit, 

Ask my people ! Anyhow, 

Be we what we may, one vow 

Binds us, male or female. Now, — 
Stand, Sir ! Read ! " Quis separabit? " 

Half a mile of pictured way 

Past these palace-walls to-day 

Traversed, this I came to say. 



CRISTINA AND MONALDESCHI. 3/ 

You must needs begin to love me ; 
First I hated, then, at best, 
— Have it so ! — I acquiesced ; 
Pure compassion did the rest. 

From below thus raised above me, 

Would you, step by step, descend, 
Pity me, become my friend, 
Like me, like less, loathe at end ? 

That 's the ladder's round you rose by ! 
That — my own foot kicked away, 
Having raised you : let it stay. 
Serve you for retreating ? Nay. 

Close to me you climbed : as close by. 
Keep your station, though the peak 
Reached proves somewhat bare and bleak ! 
Woman 's strong if man is weak. 

Keep here, loving me forever ! 

Love's look, gesture, speech, I claim ; 
Act love, lie love, all the same — 
Play as earnest were our game ! 

Lonely I stood long : 't was clever 

When you climbed, before men's eyes, 
Spurned the earth and scaled the skies, 
Gained my peak and grasped your prize. 



38 JOCOSE RI A. 

Here you stood, then, to men's wonder; 
Here you tire of standing ? Kneel 1 
Cure what giddiness you feel, 
This way ! Do your senses reel ? 

Not unlikely ! What rolls under ? 
Yawning death in j-on abyss 
Where the waters whirl and hiss 
Round more frightful peaks than this. 

Should my buffet dash you thither. . . 
But be sage ! No watery grave 
Needs await you : seeming brave 
Kneel on safe, dear timid slave ! 

You surmised, when you climbed hither, 
Just as easy were retreat 
Should you tire, conceive unmeet 
Longer patience at my feet ? 

Me as standing, you as stooping, — 

Who arranged for each the pose ? 

Lest men think us friends turned foes, 

Keep the attitude you chose ! 
Men are used to this same grouping — 

I and you like statues seen. 

You and I, no third between, 

Kneel and stand 1 That makes the scene. 



CRISTINA AND MONALDESCHL 39 

Mar it — and one buffet . . . Pardon! 

Needless warmth — wise words in waste 1 

'T was prostration that replaced 

Kneeling, then ? A proof of taste. 
Crouch, not kneel, while I mount guard on 

Prostrate love — become no waif, 

No estray to waves that chafe 

Disappointed — love so safe ! 

Waves that chafe ? The idlest fancy ! 
Peaks that scare ? I think we know 
Walls enclose our sculpture : so 
Grouped, we pose in Fontainebleau, 

Up now ! Wherefore hesitancy ? 

Arm in arm and cheek by cheek, 
Laugh with me at waves and peak I 
Silent still ? Why, pictures speak. 

See, where Juno strikes Ixion, • 

Primatice speaks plainly ! Pooh — 
Rather, Florentine Le Roux ! 
I 've lost head for who is who — 

So it swims and wanders ! Fie on 

What still proves me female ! Here, 
By the staircase ! — for we near 
That dark " Gallery of the Deer." 



40 ' yOCOSERIA. 

Look me in the eyes once ! Steady ! 
Are you faithful now as erst 
On that eve when we two first 
Vowed at Avon, blessed and cursed 

Faith and falsehood ? Pale already ? 
Forward ! Must my hand compel 
Entrance — this way ? Exit — well, 
Somehow, somewhere. Who can tell ? 

What if to the self-same place in 
Rustic Avon, at the door 
Of the village church once more, 
Where a tombstone paves the floor 

By that holy-water basin 

You appealed to — " As, below, 
This stone hides its corpse, e'en so 
I your secrets hide ? " What ho ! 

Friends, my four ! You, Priest, confess him! 
I have judged the culprit there : 
Execute my sentence ! Care 
For no mail such cowards wear ! 

Done, Priest ? Then, absolve and bless him 1 
Now — you three, stab thick and fast, 
Deep and deeper ! Dead at last ? 
Thanks, friends — Father, thanks ! Aghast ? 



CRISTINA AND MONALDESCHL 4 1 

What one word of his confession 

Would you tell me, though I lured 
With that royal crown abjured 
Just because its bars immured 

Love too much ? Love burst compression, 
Fled free, finally confessed 
All its secrets to that breast 
Whence ... let Avon tell the rest I 



MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT AND 
FUSELI. 



MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT AND 
FUSELI. 



BUT is it not hard, Dear ? 

Mine are the nerves to quake at a mouse j 
If a spicier drops I shrink with fear : 

I should die outright in a haunted house; 
While for you — did the danger dared bring help- 
From a lion's den I could steal his whelp, 
With a serpent round me, stand stock-still, 
Go sleep in a churchyard, — so would will 
Give me the power to dare and do 
Valiantly — just for you ! 

Much amiss in the head, Dear, 

I toil at a language, tax my brain 

Attempting to draw — the scratches here ! 
I play, play, practice and all in vain : 

But for you — if my triumph brought you pride, 

1 would grapple with Greek Plays till I died, 



46 yocosERiA. 

Paint a portrait of you — who can tell ? 
Work my fingers off for your " Pretty well : " 
Language and painting and music too, 
Easily done — for you ! 

Strong and fierce in the heart, Dear, 

With — more than a will — what seems a power 
To pounce on my prey, love outbroke here 

Injlame devouring and to devour. 
Such love has laboured its best and worst 
To win me a lover; yet, last as first, 
I have not quickened his pulse one beat. 
Fixed a moment's fancy, bitter or sweet : 
Yet the strong fierce heart's love's labour's due, 
Utterly lost, was — you ! 



ADAM, LILITH, AND EVE. 



ADAM, LILITH, AND EVE. 



One day, it thundered and lightened. 

Two women, fairly frightened, 

Sank to their knees, transformed, transfixed, 

At the feet of the man who sat betwixt ; 

And " Mercy ! " cried each — " if I tell the truth 

Of a passage in my youth ! " 

Said This : " Do you mind the morning 

I met your love with scorning ? 

As the worst of the venom left my lips, 

I thought * If, despite this lie, he strips 

The mask from my soul with a kiss — I crawl 

His slave, — soul, body and all!'" 

Said That : " We stood to be married ; 
The priest, or some one, tarried ; 
' If Paradise-door prove locked ? ' smiled you. 
4 



50 yOCOSERIA. 

I thought, as I nodded, smiling too, 
'Did one, that 's away, arrive — nor late 
Nor soon should unlock Hell's gate 1 ' " 

It ceased to lighten and thunder. 

Up started both in wonder, 

Looked round and saw that the sky was clear, 

Then laughed " Confess you believed us, Dear ! " 

" I saw through the joke ! " the man replied 

They re-seated themselves beside. 



IXION. 



IXION. 



High in the dome, suspended, of Hell, sad triumph, 
behold us ! 
Here the revenge of a God, there the amends of a 
Man. 
Whirling forever in torment, flesh once mortal, im- 
mortal 
Made — for a purpose of hate — able to die and 
revive, 
Pays to the uttermost pang, then, newly for payment 
replenished, 
Doles out — old yet young — agonies ever afresh ; 
Whence the result above me : torment is bridged by 
a rainbow, — 
Tears, sweat, blood, — each spasm, ghastly once, 
glorified now. 
Wrung, by the rush of the wheel ordained my place 
of reposing. 
Off in a spark like spray, — flesh become vapour 
thro' pain, — 



54 yocosERiA. 

Flies the bestowment of Zeus, soul's vaunted bodily 
vesture, 
Made that his feats observed gain the approval of 
Man, — 
Flesh that he fashioned with sense of the earth and 
the sky and the ocean, 
Framed should pierce to the star, fitted to pore on 
the plant. 
All, for a purpose of hate, re-framed, re-fashioned, 
re-fitted 
Till, consummate at length, — lo, the employment 
of sense ! 
Pain's mere minister now to the soul, once pledged 
to her pleasure — 
Soul, if un trammeled by flesh, unapprehensive of 
pain ! 
Body, professed soul's slave, which serving beguiled 
and betrayed her. 
Made things false seem true, cheated thro' eye 
and thro' ear, 
Lured thus heart and brain to believe in the lying 
reported, — 
Spurn but the traitrous slave, uttermost, atom, 
away, 
What should obstruct soul's rush on the real, the 
only apparent ? 
Say I have erred, — how else ? Was I Ixion or 
Zeus ? 



IX ION. 55 

Foiled by my senses I dreamed ; I doubtless awaken 
in wonder : 
This proves shine, that — shade ? Good was the 
evil that seemed ? 
Shall I, with sight thus gained, by torture be taught 
I was blind once ? 
Sisuphos, teaches thy stone — Tantalos, teaches 
thy thirst 
Aught which unaided sense, purged pure, less plainly 
demonstrates ? 
No, for the past was dream : now that the dream- 
ers awake, 
Sisuphos scouts low fraud, and to Tantalos treason 
is folly. 
Ask of myself, whose form melts on the mur- 
derous wheel. 
What is the sin which throe and throe prove sin to 
the sinner ! 
Say the false charge was true, — thus do I ex- 
piate, say. 
Arrogant thought, word, deed, — mere man who con- 
ceited me godlike. 
Sat beside Zeus, my friend — knelt before Here, 
my love ! 
What were the need but of pitying power to touch 
and disperse it, 
Film-work — eye's and ear's — all the distraction 
of sense ? 



56 JOCOSE RIA. 

How should the soul not see, not hear, — perceive 
and as plainly 
Render, in thought, word, deed, back again truth 
— not a lie ? 
*' Ay, but the pain is to punish thee ! " Zeus, once 
more for a pastime. 
Play the familiar, the frank ! Speak and have 
speech in return ! 
I was of Thessaly king, there ruled and a people 
obeyed me : 
Mine to establish the law, theirs to obey it or die : 
Wherefore ? Because of the good to the people, be- 
cause of the honour 
Thence accruing to me, king, the king's law was 
supreme. 
What of the weakling, the ignorant criminal ? Not 
who, excuseless. 
Breaking my law braved death, knowing his deed 
and its due — 
Nay, but the feeble and foolish, the poor transgres- 
sor, of purpose 
No whit more than a tree, born to erectness of 
bole. 
Palm or plane or pine, we laud if lofty, columnar — 
Loathe if athwart, askew, — leave to the axe and 
the flame ! 
Where is the vision may penetrate earth and behold- 
ing acknowledge 



IX ion: 57 

Just one pebble at root ruined the straightness of 
stem ? 
Whose fine vigilance follows the sapling, accounts 
for the failure, 
— Here blew wind, so it bent : there the snow 
lodged, so it broke ? 
Also the tooth of the beast, bird's bill, mere bite of 
the insect 
Gnawed, gnarled, warped their worst : passive it 
lay to offence. 
King — I was man, no more: what I recognized 
faulty I punished. 
Laying it prone : be sure, more than a man had I 
proved, 
Watch and ward o'er the sapling at birthtime had 
saved it, nor simply 
Owned the distortion's excuse, — hindered it 
wholly : nay, more — 
Even a man, as I sat in my place to do judgment, 
and pallid 
Criminals passing to doom shuddered away at 
my foot, 
Could I have probed thro' the face to the heart, read 
plain a repentance, 
Crime confessed fools' play, virtue ascribed to the 
wise. 
Had I not stayed the consignment to doom, not 
dealt the renewed ones 



5 8 JOCOSERIA. 

Life to retraverse the past, light to retrieve the 
misdeed ? 
Thus had I done, and thus to have done much more 
it behooves thee, 
Zeus who madest man — flawless or faulty, thy 
work ! 
What if the charge were true, as thou mouthest, — 
Ixion the cherished 
Minion of Zeus grew vain, vied with the godships 
and fell. 
Forfeit thro' arrogance ? Stranger ! I clothed, with 
the grace of our human. 
Inhumanity — gods, natures I likened to ours. 
Man among men I had borne me till gods forsooth 
must regard me 
— Nay, must approve, applaud, claim as a com- 
rade at last. 
Summoned to enter their circle, I sat — their equal, 
how other ? 
Love should be absolute love, faith is in fullness 
or nought. 
" I am thy friend, be mine ! " smiled Zeus : " If Her^ 
attract thee," 
Blushed the imperial cheek, "then — as thy heart 
may suggest ! " 
Faith in me sprang to the faith, my love hailed love 
as its fellow, 



IX I ON. 59 

"Zeus, we are friends — how fast! Herd, my 
heart for thy heart ! " 
Then broke smile into fury of frown, and the thunder 
of " Hence, fool ! " 
Then thro' the kiss laughed scorn " Limbs or a 
cloud was to clasp ? " 
Then from Olumpos to Erebos, then from the rap- 
ture to torment. 
Then from the fellow of gods — misery's mate, to 
the man ! 
— Man henceforth and forever, who lent from the 
glow of his nature 
Warmth to the cold, with light coloured the black 
and the blank. 
So did a man conceive of your passion, you passion- 
protesters ! 
So did he trust, so love — being the truth of your 
lie! 
You to aspire to be Man ! Man made you who 
vainly would ape him : 
You are the hollowness, he — filling you, falsifies 
void. 
Even as — witness the emblem, Hell's sad triumph 
suspended. 
Born of my tears, sweat, blood — bursting to va- 
pour above — 
Arching my torment, an iris ghostlike startles the 
darkness, 



6o yOCOSERIA. 

Cold white — jewelry quenched — justifies, glori- 
fies pain. 
Strive, my kind, though strife endure thro' endless 
obstruction. 
Stage after stage, each rise marred by as certain a 
fall! 
Baffled forever — yet never so baffled but, e'en in 
the baffling, 
When Man's strength proves weak, checked in the 
body or soul — 
Whatsoever the medium, flesh or essence, — Ixion 's 
Made for a purpose of hate, — clothing the entity 
Thou, 
— Medium whence that entity strives for the Not- 
Thou beyond it. 
Fire elemental, free, frame unencumbered, the 
All,— 
Never so baffled but — when, on the verge of an alien 
existence, 
Heartened to press, by pangs burst to the infinite 
Pure, 
Nothing is reached but the ancient weakness still 
that arrests strength. 
Circumambient still, still the poor human array. 
Pride and revenge and hate and cruelty — all it has 
burst through, 
Thought to escape, — fresh formed, found in the 
fashion it fled, — 



IX I ON. 6 1 

Never so baffled but — when Man pays the price of 
endeavor, 
Thunderstruck, downthrust, Tartaros-doomed to 
the wheel, — 
Then, ay, then, from the tears and sweat and blood 
of his torment, 
E'en from the triumph of Hell, up let him look 
and rejoice ! 
What is the influence, high o'er Hell, that turns to a 
rapture 
Pain — and despair's murk mists blends in a rain- 
bow of hope ? 
What is beyond the obstruction, stage by stage the' 
it baffle ? 
Back must I fall, confess " Ever the weakness I 
fled " ? 
No, for beyond, far, far is a Purity all-unobstructed ! 
Zeus was Zeus — not Man : wrecked by his weak- 
ness, I whirl. 
Out of the wreck I rise — past Zeus to the Potency 
o'er him ! 
I — to have hailed him my friend ! I — to have 
clasped her — my love ! 
Pallid birth of my pain — where light, where light is, 
aspiring 
Thither I rise, whilst thou — Zeus, keep the god- 
ship and sink 1 



JOCHANAN HAKKADOSH. 



JOCHANAN HAKKADOSH. 



" This now, this other story makes amends 
And justifies our Mishna," quoth the Jew 
Aforesaid. " Tell it, learnedest of friends ! " 



A certain morn broke beautiful and blue 

O'er Schiphaz city, bringing joy and mirth, 

— So had ye deemed ; while the reverse was true, 

Since one small house there gave a sorrow birth 
In such black sort that, to each faithful eye, 
Midnight, not morning settled on the earth. 

How else, when it grew certain thou wouldst die 
Our much-enlightened master, Israel's prop, 
Eximious Jochanan Ben Sabbathai ? 
5 



66 yocosERiA. 

Old, yea but, undiminished of a drop, 

The vital essence pulsed through heart and brain ; 

Time left unsickled yet the plenteous crop 

On poll and chin and cheek, whereof a skein 
Handmaids might weave — hairs silk-soft, silver- 
white. 
Such as the wool-plant's ; none the less in vain 

Had Physic striven her best against the spite 
Of fell disease : the Rabbi must succumb ; 
And, round the couch whereon in piteous plight 

He lay a-dying, scholars, — awe-struck, dumb 
Throughout the night-watch, — roused themselves 

and spoke 
One to the other : "Ere death's touch benumb 

" His active sense, — while yet 'neath Reason's 

yoke 
Obedient toils his tongue, — befits we claim 
The fruit of long experience, bid this oak 

*' Shed us an acorn which may, all the same, 
Grow to a temple-pillar, — dear that day ! — 
When Israel's scattered seed finds place and 
name 



yOCHANAN HAKKADOSH. 6/ 

** Among the envious nations. Lamp us, pray, 
Thou the Enlightener ! Partest hence in peace ? 
Hailest without regret — much less, dismay — 

" The hour of thine approximate release 

From fleshly bondage soul hath found obstruct ? 

Calmly envisages! the sure increase 

" Of knowledge ? Eden's tree must hold unplucked 
Some apple, sure, has never tried thy tooth, 
Juicy with sapience thou hast sought, not sucked ? 

" Say, does age acquiesce in vanished youth ? 

Still towers thy purity above — as erst — 

Our pleasant follies ? Be thy last word — truth ! " 

The Rabbi groaned ; then, grimly, " Last as first 
The truth speak I — in boyhood who began 
Striving to live an angel, and, amerced 

" For such presumption, die now hardly man. 
What have I proved of life ? To live, indeed, 
That much I learned : but here lies Jochanan 

" More luckless than stood David when, to speed 
His fighting with the Philistine, they brought 
Saul's harness forth : whereat, ' Alack, I need 



68 yocosERiA. 

" Armour to arm me, but have never fought 
With sword and spear, nor tried to manage shield, 
Proving arms' use, as well-trained warrior ought. 

*' Only a sling and pebbles can I wield ! ' 
So he : while I, contrariwise, ' No trick 
Of weapon helpful on the battle-field 

" Comes unfamiliar to my theoric : 

But, bid me put in practice what I know, 

Give me a sword — it stings like Moses' stick, 

"A serpent I let drop apace.' E'en so, 
I, — able to comport me at each stage 
Of human life as never here below 

" Man played his part, — since mine the heritage 

Of wisdom carried to that perfect pitch. 

Ye rightly praise, — I, therefore, who, thus sage, 

" Could sure act man triumphantly, enrich 
Life's annals with example how I played 
Lover, Bard, Soldier, Statist, — (all of which 

" Parts in presentment failing, cries invade 

The world's ear — ' Ah, the Past, the pearl-gift 

thrown 
To hogs, time's opportunity we made 



yOCHANAN HAKKADOSH. 69 

" So light of, only recognized when flown. 

Had we been wise ! ') — in fine, I — wise enough, — 

What profits brings me wisdom never shown 

" Just when its showing would from each rebuff 
Shelter weak virtue, threaten back to bounds 
Encroaching vice, tread smooth each track too rough 

" For youth's unsteady footstep, climb the rounds 

Of life's long ladder, one by slippery one. 

Yet make no stumble ? Me hard fate confounds 

*' With that same crowd of wailers I outrun 

By promising to teach another cry 

Of more hilarious mood than theirs, the sun 

" I look my last at is insulted by. 

What cry, — ye ask ? Give ear on every side ! 

Witness yon Lover ! ' How entrapped am I ! 

" Methought, because a virgin's rose-lip vied 
With ripe Khubbezleh's, needs must beauty mate 
With meekness and discretion in a bride : 

" Bride she became to me who wail — too late — 
Unwise I loved!' That 's one cry, 'Mind 's my 

gift: 
I might have loaded me with lore, full weip-ht 



70 yOCOSLRIA. 

" Pressed down and running over at each rift 

O' the brain-bag where the famished clung and 

fed. 
I filled it with what rubbish ! — would not sift 

" The wheat from chaff, sound grain from musty — 

shed 
Poison abroad as oft as nutriment — 
And sighing say but as my fellows said, 

" Unwise I learned ! ' That 's two. ' In dwarfs- 
play spent 
Was giant's prowess: warrior all unversed 
In war's right waging, I struck brand, was lent 

*' For steel's fit service, on mere stone — and cursed 
Alike the shocked limb and the shivered steel. 
Seeing too late the blade's true use which erst 

" How was I blind to ! My cry swells the peal — 
Unwise I fought f That 's three. But wherefore 

waste 
Breath on the wailings longer ? Why reveal 

" A root of bitterness whereof the taste 

Is noisome to Humanity at large? 

First we get Power, but Power absurdly placed 



yOCHANAN HAKKADOSH, 7 1 

" In Folly's keeping, who resigns her charge 

To Wisdom when all Power grows nothing worth : 

Bones marrowless are mocked with helm and targe 

" When, like your Master's, soon below the earth 
With worms shall warfare only be. Farewell, 
Children ! I die a failure since my birth ! " 

" Not so ! " arose a protest as, pell-mell, 
They pattered from his chamber to the street, 
Bent on a last resource. Our Targums tell 

That such resource there is. Put case, there meet 
The Nine Points of Perfection — rarest chance — 
Within some saintly teacher whom the fleet 

Years, in their blind implacable advance, 
O'ertake before fit teaching born of these 
Have magnified his scholars' countenance, — 

If haply folk compassionating please 
To render up — according to his store, 
Each one — a portion of the life he sees 

Hardly worth saving when 't is set before 
Earth's benefit should the Saint, Hakkadosh, 
Favoured thereby, attain to full fourscore — 



72 yOCOSERIA. 

If such contribute (Scoffer, spare thy " Bosh ! ") 
A year, a month, a daj^, an hour — to eke 
Life out, — in him away the gift sliall wash 

That much of ill-spent time recorded, streak 
The twilight of the so-assisted sage 
With a new sunrise : truth, though strange to 
speak ! 

Quick to the door-way, then, where youth arid age, 

All Israel, thronging, waited for the last 

News of the loved one. " 'T is the final stage : 

" Art's utmost done, the Rabbi's feet tread fast 
The way of all flesh ! " So announced that apt 
Olive-branch Tsaddik : " Yet, O Brethren, cast 

" No eye to earthward ! Look where heaven has 

clapped 
Morning's extinguisher — yon ray-shot robe 
Of sun-threads — on the constellation mapped 

"And mentioned by our Elders, — yea, from Job 
Down to Satam, — as figuring forth — what ? 
Perpend a mystery ! Ye call it Dob, 

** ' The Bear ' : I trow, a wiser name than that 



yOCHANAN HAKKADOSH. 73 

Were Aish — ' The Bier ' : a corpse those four stars 

hold, 
Which — are not those Three Daughters weeping at, 

" Banoth ? I judge so : list while I unfold 
The reason. As in twice twelve hours this Bier 
Goes and returns, about the east-cone rolled, 

" So may a setting luminary here 

Be rescued from extinction, rolled anew 

Upon its track of labour, strong and clear, 

" About the Pole — that Salem, every Jew 
Helps to build up when thus he saves some Saint 
Ordained its architect. Ye grasp the clue 

" To all ye seek ? The Rabbi's lamp-flame fain 
Sinks: would ye raise it? Lend then life from yours, 
Spare each his oil-drop ! Do I need acquaint 

" The Chosen how self-sacrifice insures 

Ten-fold requital ? — urge ye emulate 

The fame of those Old Just Ones death procures 

" Such praise for, that 't is now men's sole debate 
Which of the Ten, who volunteered at Rome 
To die for glor}' to our Race, was great 



74 yocosERiA. 

"Beyond his fellows ? Was it tl:ou — the comb 

Of iron carded, flesh from bone, away. 

While thy h'ps sputtered thro' their bloody foam 

" Without a stoppage (O brave Akiba !) 

* Hear, Israel, our Lord God is One ' ? Or thou, 

Jischab ? — who smiledst, burning, since there lay, 

*' Burning along with thee, our Law ! I trow, 
Such martyrdom might tax flesh to afford : 
While that for which I make petition now, 

*' To what amounts it ? Youngster, wilt thou hoard 
Each minute of long years thou look'st to spend 
In dalliance with thy spouse ? Hast thou so soared, 

" Singer of songs, all out of sight of friend 
And teacher, warbling like a woodland bird, 
There 's left no Selah, 'twixt two psalms, to lend 

'• Our late-so-tuneful quirist ? Thou, averred 

The fighter born to plant our lion flag 

Once more on Zion's mount, — doth, all-unheard, 

" My pleading fail to move thee ? Toss some rag 
Shall staunch our wound, some minute never missed 
From swordsman's lustihood like thine ! Wilt lag 



yOCHANAN HAKKADOSH. 75 

" In liberal bestowment, show close fist 

When open palm we look for, — thou, wide-known 

For state-craft ? whom, 't is said, an if thou list, 

" The Shah himself would seat beside his throne, 
So valued were advice from thee "... But here 
He stopped short : such a hubbub ! Not alone 

From those addressed, but far as well as near 

The crowd broke into clamour : " Mine, mine, mine — 

Lop from my life the excrescence, never fear ! 

" At me thou lookedst, markedst me ! Assign 

To me that privilege of granting life — 

Mine, mine ! " Then he : " Be patient ! I combine 

" The needful portions only, wage no strife 
With Nature's law, nor seek to lengthen out 
The Rabbi's day unduly. 'T is the knife 

*' I stop, — would cut its thread too short. About 

As much as helps life last the proper term, 

The appointed Fourscore, — that I crave, and scout 

" A too-prolonged existence. Let the worm 
Change at fit season to the butterfly ! 
And here a story strikes me, to confirm 



76 yOCOSERIA. 

"This judgment. Of our worthies, none ranks high 

As Perida who kept the famous school : 

None rivaled him in patience : none ! For why ? 

" In lecturing it was his constant rule, 

Whatever he expounded, to repeat 

— Ay, and keep on repeating, lest some fool 

" Should fail to understand him fully — (feat 

Unparalleled, Uzzean !) — do ye mark ? — 

Five hundred times ! So might he entrance beat 

" For knowledge into howsoever dark 

And dense the brain-pan. Yet it happed, at close 

Of one especial lecture, not one spark 

" Of light was found to have illumed the rows 
Of pupils round their pedagogue. * What, still 
Impenetrable to me ? Then — here goes ! ' 

" And for a second time he sets the rill 

Of knowledge running, and fiv^e hundred times 

More re-repeats the matter — and gains tiil. 

" Out broke a voice from heaven : ' Thy patience 

climbs 
Even thus high. Choose ! Wilt thou, rather, quick 
Ascend to bliss — or, since thy zeal sublimes 



yOCFIANAN HAKKADOSH. 77 

" Such drudgery, will thy back still bear its crick, 
Bent o'er thy class, — thy voice drone spite of 

drouth, — 
Five hundred years more at thy desk wilt stick ? 

" ' To heaven with me ! ' was in the good man's 

mouth. 
When all his scholars, — cruel-kind were they ! — 
Stopped utterance, from East, West, North, and 

South, 

"Rending the welkin with their shout of ' Nay — 
No heaven as yet for our instructor ! Grant 
Five hundred years on earth for Perida ! ' 

" And so long did he keep instructing ! Want 
Our Master no such misery ! I but take 
Three months of life marital. Ministrant 

" Be thou of so much, Poet ! Bold I make, 
Swordsman, with thy frank offer ! — and conclude. 
Statist, with thine ! One year, — ye will not 
shake 

" My purpose to accept no more. So rude ? 
The very boys and girls, forsooth, must press 
And proffer their addition ? Thanks ! The mood 



78 JOCOSERIA. 

" Is laudable, but I reject, no less. 

One month, week, day of life more. Leave my gown, 

Ye overbold ones ! Your life's gift, you guess, 

" Were good as any ? Rudesby, get thee down ! 
Set my feet free, or fear my staff ! Farewell, 
Seniors and saviours, sharers of renown 

" With Jochanan henceforward ! " Straightway fell 
Sleep on the sufferer; who awoke in health, 
Hale ever}^way, so potent was the spell. 



O the rare Spring-time ! Who is he by stealth 
Approaches Jochanan ? — embowered that sits 
Under his vine and fig-tree mid the wealth 

Of garden-sights and sounds, since intermits 
Never the turtle's coo, nor stays nor stints 
The rose her smell. In homage that befits 

The musing Master, Tsaddik, see, imprints 
A kiss on the extended foot, low bends 
Forehead to earth, then, all-obsequious, hints 

" What if it should be time ? A period ends — 
That of the Lover's gift — his quarter-year 
Of lustihood : 't is just thou make amends, 



JOCHANAN HAKKADOSH. _ 79 

" Return that loan with usury : so, here 

Come I, of thy Disciples delegate, 

Claiming our lesson from thee. Make appear 

"Thy profit from experience ! Plainly state 

How men should Love ! " Thus he : and to him 

thus 
The Rabbi : " Love, ye call it? — rather. Hate ! 

"What wouldst thou ? Is it needful I discuss 
Wherefore new sweet wine, poured in bottles 

caked 
With old strong wine's deposit, offers us 

" Spoilt liquor we recoil from, thirst-unslaked ? 
Like earth-smoke from a crevice, influence wound — 
Languors and yearnings : not a sense but ached 

" Weighed on by fancied form and feature, sound 

Of silver word and sight of sunny smile : 

No beckoning of a flower-branch, no profound 

" Purple of noon-oppression, no light wile 

O' the West wind, but transformed itself till — 

brief — 
Before me stood the phantasy ye style 



80 yOCOSERIA. 

" Youth's love, the joy that shall not come to grief, 
Born to endure, eternal, unimpaired 
By custom the accloyer, time the thief. 

" Had Age's hard cold knowledge only spared 
That ignorance of Youth ! But now the dream, 
Fresh as from Paradise, alighting fared 

" As fares the pigeon, finding what may seem 
Her nest's safe hollow holds a snake inside 
Coiled to enclasp her. See, Eve stands supreme 

" In youth and beauty ! Take her for thy bride ! 
What Youth deemed crystal. Age finds out was 

dew 
Morn set a-sparkle, but which noon has dried 

"While Youth bent gazing at its red and blue 
Supposed perennial, — never dreamed the sun 
Which kindled the display would quench it too. 

"Graces of shape and colour — everyone 

With its appointed period of decay 

When ripe to purpose ! ' Still, these dead and done, 

" Survives the woman-nature — the soft sway 

Of undefinable omnipotence 

O'er our strong male-stuff, we of Adam's clay.' 



yOCHANAN HAKKADOSH. Si 

"Ay, if my physics taught not why and whence 
The attraction ! Am I like the simple steer 
Who, from his pasture lured inside the fence 

" Where yoke and goad await him, holds that mere 
Kindliness prompts extension of the hand 
Hollowed for barley, which drew near and near 

" His nose — in proof that, of the horned band, 
The farmer best affected him ? Beside, 
Steer, long since calfhood, got to understand 

" Farmers a many in the world so wide 

Were ready with a handful just as choice 

Or choicer — maize and cummin, treats untried. 

" Shall I wed wife, and all my days rejoice 
I gained the peacock ? 'Las me, round I look, 
And lo, — ' With me thou wouldst have blamed no 
voice 

" Like hers that daily deafens like a rook : 

I am the phoenix ! ' — 'I, the lark, the dove, 

— The owl,' for aught knows he who blindly took 

" Peacock for partner, while the vale, the grove, 
The plain held bird-mates in abundance. There ! 
Youth, try fresh capture ! Age has found out Love 



82 JOCOSERIA. 

" Long ago. War seems better worth man's care. 
But leave me ! Disappointment finds a balm 
Haply in slumber." "This first step o' the stair 

" To knowledge fails me, but the victor's palm 

Lies on the next to tempt him overleap 

A stumbling-block experience. Gather calm, 

"Thou excellence of Judah, cured by sleep 
Which ushers in the Warrior, to replace 
The Lover ! At due season I shall reap 

" Fruit of my planting ! " So, with lengthened face, 
Departed Tsaddik : and three moons more waxed 
And waned, and not until the summer-space 

Waned likewise, any second visit taxed 

The Rabbi's patience. But at three months' end, 

Behold, supine beneath a rock, relaxed 

The sage lay musing till the noon should spend 
Its ardour. Up comes Tsaddik, who but he. 
With " Master, may I warn thee, nor offend, 

"That time comes round again ? We look to see 
Sprout from the old branch — not the youngling 

twig — 
But fruit of sycamine : deliver me. 



JOCHANAN HAKKADOSH. 83 

" To share among my fellows, some plump fig, 
Juicy as seedy ! That same man of war. 
Who, with a scantling of his store, made big 

" Thy starveling nature, caused thee, safe from scar, 
To share his gains by long acquaintanceship 
With bump and bruise and all the knocks that are 

"Of battle dowry: therefore, loose thy lip. 
Explain the good of battle ! Since thou know'st, 
Let us know likewise ! Fast the moments slip, 

*' More need that we improve them ! " — " Ay, we 

boast, 
We warriors in our youth, that with the sword 
Man goes the swiftliest to the uttermost — 

"Takes the straight way thro' lands yet unexplored 
To absolute Right and Good, — may so obtain 
God's glory and man's weal too long ignored, 

" Too late attained by preachments all in vain, — 
The passive process. Knots get tangled worse 
By toying with : does cut cord close again ? 

" Moreover there is blessing in the curse 
Peace-praisers call war. What so sure evolves 
All the capacities of soul, proves nurse 



84 JOCOSERIA. 

" Of that self-sacrifice in men which solves 
The riddle — Wherein differs Man from beast 1 
Foxes boast cleverness and courage wolves : 

" Nowhere but in mankind is found the least 
Touch of an impulse 'To our fellows — good 
r the highest ! — not diminished but increased 

*' By the condition plainly understood 

— Such good shall be attained at price of hurt 

1' the highest to ourselves ! ' Fine sparks, that brood 

" Confusedly in Man, 't is war bids spurt 
Forth into flame : as fares the meteor-mass. 
Whereof no particle but holds inert 

" Some seed of light and heat, however crass 
The enclosure, yet avails not to discharge 
Its radiant birth before there come to pass 

*' Some push external, — strong to set at large 
Those dormant fire-seeds, whirl them in a trice 
Through heaven and light up earth from marge to 
marge : 

" Since force by motion makes — what erst was ice — 
Crash into fervency and so expire, 
Because some Djinn has hit on a device 



yOCHANAN HAKKADOSH. 85 

*' For proving the full prettiness of fire ! 
Ay, thus we prattle — young : but old — why, first, 
Where 's that same Right and Good — (the wise in- 
quire) — 

" So absolute, it warrants the outburst 

Of blood, tears, all war's woeful consequence, 

That comes of the fine flaring ? Which plague cursed 

**The more your benefitted Man — offence, 

Or what suppressed the offender ? Say it did — 

Show us the evil cured by violence, 

" Submission cures not also ! Lift the lid 
From the maturing crucible, we find 
Its slow sure coaxing-out of virtue, hid 

" In that same meteor-mass, hath uncombined 

Those particles and, yielding for result 

Gold, not mere flame, by so much leaves behind 

" The heroic product. E'en the simple cult 
Of Edom's children wisely bids them turn 
Cheek to the smiter with ' Sic Jestis vulf.' 

" Say there 's a tyrant by whose death we earn 
Freedom, and justify a war to wage : 
Good ! — were we only able to discern 



86 yOCOSERIA. 

" Exactly how to reach and catch and cage 

Him only and no innocent beside ! 

Whereas the folk whereon war wreaks its rage 

" — How shared they his ill-doing ? Far and 

wide 
The victims of our warfare strew the plain, 
Ten thousand dead, whereof not one but died 

" In faith that vassals owed their suzerain 

Life : therefore each paid tribute, — honest soul, — 

To that same Right and Good ourselves are fain 

"To claim exclusively our end. From bole 
(Since ye accept in me a sycamine) 
Pluck, eat, digest a fable — yea, the sole 

" Fig I afford you ! ' Dost thou dwarf my vine ? ' 

(So did a certain husbandman address 

The tree which faced his field) ' Receive condign 

"Punishment, prompt removal by the stress 
Of axe I forthwitli lay unto thy root ! ' 
Long did he hack and hew, the root no less 

" As long defied him, for its tough strings shoot 
As deep down as the boughs above aspire : 
All that he did was — shake to the tree's foot 



yOCHANAN HAKKADOSH. 8^ 

" Leafage and fruitage, things we most require 
For shadow and refreshment : which good deed 
Thoroughly done, behold the axe-haft tires 

" His hand, and he desisting leaves unfreed 

The vine he hacked and hewed for. Comes a frost, 

One natural night's-work, and there 's little need 

" Of hacking, hewing : lo, the tree 's a ghost ! 
Perished it starves, black death from topmost bough 
To farthest-reaching fibre ! Shall I boast 

" My rough work, — warfare, — helped more ? Lov- 
ing, now — 
That, by comparison, seems wiser, since 
The loving fool was able to avow 

" He could effect his purpose, just evince 

Love's willingness, — once ware of what she lacked, 

His loved one, — to go work for that, nor wince 

" At self-expenditure : he neithc" hacked 
Nor hewed, but when the lady of his field 
Required defence because the sun attacked, 

" He, failing to obtain a fitter shield. 
Would interpose his body, and so blaze, 
Blest in the burning. Ah, were mine to wield 



S8 yOCOSERIA. 

" The intellectual weapon — poet-lays, — 

How preferably had I sung one song 

Which . . . but my sadness sinks me : go your ways ! 

" I sleep out disappointment." " Come along, 
Never lose heart ! There 's still as much again 
Of our bestowment left to right the wrong 

" Done by its earlier moiety — explain 

Wherefore, who may ! The Poet's mood comes next. 

Was he not wishful the poetic vein 

" Should pulse within him ? Jochanan, thou reck'st 
Little of what a generous flood shall soon 
Float thy clogged spirit free and unperplexed 

" Above dry dubitation ! Song 's the boon 
Shall make amends for my untoward mistake 
That Joshua-like thou couldst.bid sun and moon — 

" Fighter and Lover, — which for most men make 
All they descry in heaven, — stand both stock-still 
And lend assistance. Poet shalt thou wake ! " 

Autumn brings Tsaddik. " Ay, there speeds the rill 
Loaded with leaves : a scowling sky, beside : 
The wind makes olive-trees up yonder hill 



yOCHANAN HAKKADOSH. 89 

" Whiten and shudder — symptoms far and wide 
Of gleaning-time's approach ; and glean good 

store 
May I presume to trust we shall, thou tried 

" And ripe experimenter ! Three months more 
Have ministered to growth of Song : that graft 
Into thy sterile stock has found at core 

" Moisture, I warrant, hitherto unquaffed 

By boughs, however florid, wanting sap 

Of prose-experience which provides the draught 

" Mere song-sprouts, wanting, wither : vain we tap 
A youngling stem all green and immature 
Experience must secrete the stuff, our hap 

" Will be to quench Man's thirst with, glad and 

sure 
That fancy wells up through corrective fact : 
Wanting which test of truth, though flowers allure 

" The goodman's eye with promise, soon the pact 
Is broken, and 't is flowers, — mere words, — he 

finds 
When things, — that 's fruit, — he looked for. Well, 

once cracked 



90 yOCOSERIA. 

" The nut, how glad my tooth the kernel grinds ! 
Song may henceforth boast substance ! Therefore, 

hail 
Proser and poet, perfect in both kinds ! 

" Thou from whose eye hath dropped the envious 

scale 
Which hides the truth of things and substitutes 
Deceptive show, unaided optics fail 

" To transpierce, — hast entrusted to the lute's 
Soft but sure guardianship some unrevealed 
Secret shall lift mankind above the brutes 

" As only knowledge can ? " "A fount unsealed " 
(Sighed Jochanan) "should seek the heaven in leaps 
To die in dew-gems — not find death, congealed 

" By contact with the cavern's nether deeps, 
Earth's secretest foundation where, enswathed 
In dark and fear, primaeval mystery sleeps — 

"Petrific fount wherein my fancies bathed 

And straight turned ice. My dreams of good and 

fair 
In soaring upwards had dissolved, unscathed 



JOCHANAN HAKKADOSH. 9 1 

" By any influence of the kindly air, 

Singing, as each took flight, The Future — that 's 

Our destination, mists turn rainbows there, 

" Which sink to fog, confounded in the flats 

O' the Present ! Day 's the song-time for the 

lark, 
Night for her music boasts but owls and bats. 

" And what 's the Past but night — the deep and 

dark 
Ice-spring I speak of, corpse-thicked with its drowned 
Dead fancies which no sooner touched the mark 

" They aimed at — fact — than all at once they 

found 
Their film-wings freeze, henceforth unfit to reach 
And roll in aether, revel — robed and crowned 

"As truths confirmed by falsehood all and each — 

Sovereign and absolute and ultimate ! 

Up with them, skyward, Youth, ere Age impeach 

" Thy least of promises to re-instate 

Adam in Eden ! Sing on, ever sing, 

Chirp till thou burst ! — the fool cicada's fate, 



92 JOCOSERIA. 

" Who holds that after Summer next comes Spring, 
Than Summer's self sun-warmed, spice-scented more. 
Fighting was better ! There, no fancy-fling 

" Pitches you past the point was reached of yore 
By Samsons, Abners, Joabs, Judases, 
The mighty men of valor who, before 

" Our little day, did wonders none profess 
To doubt were fable and not fact, so trust 
By fancy-flights to emulate much less. 

" Were I a Statesman, now ! Why, that were just 
To pinnacle my soul, mankind above, 
A-top the universe : no vulgar lust 

"To gratify — fame, greed, at this remove 
Looked down upon so far — or over-looked 
So largely, rather — that mine eye should rove 

" World-wide and rummage earth, the many-nooked, 
Yet find no unit of the human flock 
Caught straying but straight comes back hooked and 
crooked 

" By the strong shepherd who, from out his stock 
Of aids proceeds to treat each ailing fleece, 
Here stimulate to growth, curtail and dock 



JOCHAA'AN HAKKADOSH. 93 

"There, baldness or excrescence, — that, with grease, 
This, with up-grubbing of the bristly patch 
Born of the tick-bite. How supreme a peace 

" Steals o'er the Statist, — while, in wit, a match 
For shrewd Ahithophel, in wisdom . . . well, 
His name escapes me — somebody, at watch 

" And ward, the fellow of Ahithophel 

In guidance of the Chosen ! " — at which word 

Eyes closed and fast asleep the Rabbi fell. 

"Cold weather!" shivered Tsaddik. "Yet the 

hoard 
Of the sagacious ant shows garnered grain, 
Ever abundant most when fields afford 

" Least pasture, and alike disgrace the plain 
Tall tree and lowly shrub. 'T is so with us 
Mortals : our age stores wealth ye seek in vain 

" While busy youth culls just what we discuss 
At leisure in the last days : and the last 
Truly are these for Jochanan, whom thus 

" I make one more appeal to ! Thine amassed 
Experience, now or never, let escape 
Some portion of ! For I perceive aghast 



94 JOCOSEKIA. 

"The end approaches, while they jeer and jape, 
These sons of Shimei : ' Justify your bo-ast ! 
What have ye gained from Death by twelve months' 
rape ? ' 

"Statesman, what cure hast thou for — least and 

most — 
Popular grievances ? What nostrum, saj'. 
Will make the Rich and Poor, expertly dosed, 

" Forget disparity, bid each go gay 

That, with his bauble, — with his burden, this ? 

Propose an alkahest shall melt away 

" Men's lacquer, show by prompt analysis 
Which is the metal, which the make-believe. 
So that no longer brass shall find, gold miss 

" Coinage and currency ? Make haste, retrieve 
The precious moments, Master ! " Whereunto 
There snarls an " Ever laughing in thy sleeve, 

" Pert Tsaddik ? Youth indeed sees plain a 

clue 
To guide man where life's wood is intricate : 
How shall he fail to thrid its thickest through 



yOCHANAN HAKKADOSH. 95 

" When every oak-trunk takes the eye ? Elate 
He goes from bole to brushwood, plunging finds — 
Smothered in briars — that the small 's the great 1 

"All men are men : I would all minds were minds ! 
Whereas 't is just the many's mindless mass 
That most needs helping : labourers and hinds 

"We legislate for — not the cultured class 
Which law-makes for itself nor needs the whip 
And bridle, — proper help for mule and ass, 

"Did the brutes know ! In vain our statesmanship 
Strives at contenting the rough multitude : 
Still the ox cries * 'T is me thou shouldst equip 

" With equine trappings ! ' or, in humbler mood, 
* Cribful of corn for me ! and, as for work — 
Adequate rumination o'er my food ! ' 

"Better remain a Poet ! Needs it irk 
Such an one if light, kindled in his sphere, 
Fail to transfuse the Mizraim cold and murk 

" Round about Goshen ? Though light disappear, 
Shut inside, — temporary ignorance 
Got outside of, lo, light emerging clear 



96 yOCOSERIA. 

" Shows each astonished starer the expanse 

Of heaven made bright with knowledge ! That 's 

the way, 
The only way — I see it at a glance — 

" To legislate for earth ! As poet. . . . Stay ! 
What is ... I would that . . . were it ... I had 

been . . . 
O sudden change, as if my arid clay 

" Burst into bloom ! . . ." "A change indeed, I 

ween, 
And change the last ! " sighed Tsaddik as he 

kissed 
The closing eyelids. "Just as those serene 

" Princes of Night apprised me ! Our acquist 
Of life is spent, since corners only four 
Hath Aisch, and each in turn was made desist 

" In passage round the Pole (O Mishna's lore — 

Little it profits here !) by strenuous tug 

Of friends who eked out thus to full fourscore 

" The Rabbi's years. I see each shoulder shrug ! 
What have we gained ? Away the Bier may roll ! 
To-morrow, when the Master's grave is dug. 



yOCHANAN HAKKADOSH. 97 

"In with his body I may pitch the scroll 

I hoped to glorify with, text and gloss, 

My Science of Man's Life : one blank 's the whole ! 

*' Love, war, song, statesmanship — no gain, all loss. 
The stars' bestowment ! We on our return 
To-morrow merely find — not gold but dross, 

*' The body not the soul. Come, friends, we learn 
At least thus much by our experiment — 
That — that . . . well, find what, whom it may con- 
cern ! " 

But next day through the city rumours went 

Of a new persecution ; so, they fled 

All Israel, each man, — this time, — from his tent, 

Tsaddik among the foremost. When, the dread 

Subsiding, Israel ventured back again 

Some three months after, to the cave they sped 

Where lay the Sage, — a reverential train ! 
Tsaddik first enters. "What is this I view ? 
The Rabbi still alive ? No stars remain 

" Of Aisch to stop within their courses. True, 
I mind me, certain gamesome boys must urge 
.-: Their offerings on me : can it be — one threw 

r 



98 yocosERiA. 

" Life at him and it stuck ? There needs the scourge 
To teach that urchin manners ! Prithee, grant 
Forgiveness if we pretermit thy dirge 

" Just to explain no friend was ministrant, 
This time, of life to thee ! Some jackanapes, 
I gather, has presumed to foist his scant 

" Scurvy unripe existence — wilding grapes 
Grass-green and sorrel-sour — on that grand wine, 
Mighty as mellow, which my fancy shapes 

** May fitly image forth this life of thine 

Fed on the last low fattening lees — condensed 

Elixir, no milk-mildness of the vine ! 

"Rightly with Tsaddik wert thou now incensed 
Had he been witting of the mischief wrought 
When, for elixir, verjuice he dispensed ! " 

And slowly woke, — like Shushan's flower besought 

By over-curious handling to unloose 

The curtained secrecy wherein she thought 

Her captive bee, mid store of sweets to choose, 
Would loll in gold, pavilioned lie unteazed, 
Sucking on, sated never, — whose, O whose 



JOCHANAN HAKKADOSH. 99 

Might seem that countenance, upHft, all eased 
Of old distraction and bewilderment, 
Absurdly happy ? " How ye have appeased 

" The strife within me, bred this whole content, 
This utter acquiescence in my past 
Present and future life, — by whom was lent 

"The power to work this miracle at last, — 
Exceeds my guess. Though — ignorance confirmed 
By knowledge sounds like paradox, I cast 

" Vainly about to tell you — fitlier termed — 
This calm struck by encountering opposites, 
Each nullifying either ! Henceforth wormed 

" From out my heart is every snake that bites 

The dove that else would brood there : doubt, which 

kills 
With hiss of * What if sorrows end delights ? ' 

" Fear which stings ease with ' Work the Master 

wills ! ' 
Experience which coils round and strangles quick 
Each hope with ' Ask the Past if hoping skills 



100 ' JOCOSE RI A. 

" To work accomplishment, or proves a trick 
Wiling thee to endeavour ! Strive, fool, stop 
Nowise, so live, so die — that 's law ! why kick 

" Against the pricks ? ' All out-woraied ! Slumber, 

drop 
Thy films once more and veil the bliss within ! 
Experience strangle hope ? Hope waves a-top 

*' Her wings triumphant ! Come what will, I win, 
Whoever loses ! Every dream 's assured 
Of soberest fulfilment. There 's no sin 

" Except in doubting that the light, which lured 

The unwary into darkness, did no wrong 

Had I but marched on bold, nor paused immured 

" By mists I should have pressed thro', passed along 
My way henceforth rejoicing ! Not the boy's 
Passionate impulse he conceits so strong, 

" Which, at first touch, truth, bubble-like, destroys, — 
Not the man's slow conviction 'Vanity 
Of vanities — alike my griefs and joys ! ' 

" Ice ! — thawed (look up) each bird, each insect by — 
(Look round) by all the plants that break in bloom, 
(Look down) by every dead friend's memory 



JOCHANAN HAKKADOSH. 10 1 

" That smiles ' Am I the dust within my tomb ? ' 
Not either, but both these — amalgam rare — 
Mix in a product, not from Nature's womb, 

" But stuff which He the Operant — who shall 

dare 
Describe His operation ? — strikes alive 
And thaumaturgic. I nor know nor care 

*' How from this tohu-bohu — hopes which dive, 
And fears which soar — faith, ruined through and 

through 
By doubt, and doubt, faith treads to dust — revive 

" In some surprising sort, — as see, they do ! — 
Not merely foes no longer but fast friends — 
What does it mean unless — O strange and new 

" Discovery ! — this life proves a wine-press — 

blends 
Evil and good, both fruits of Paradise, 
Into a novel drink which — who intends 

" To quaff, must bear a brain for ecstasies 
Attempered, not this all inadequate 
Organ which, quivering within me, dies 



102 JOCOSERTA. 

" — Nay, lives ! — what, how, — too soon, or else too 

late — 
I was — I am . . ." (" He babbleth ! " Tsaddik 

mused) 
" O Thou Almighty who canst re-instate 

" Truths in their primal clarit)', confused 

By man's perception, which is man's and made 

To suit his service, — how, once disabused 

" Of reason which sees light half shine half 

shade, 
Because of flesh, the medium that adjusts 
Purity to his visuals, both an aid 

" And hindrance, — how to eyes earth's air en- 
crusts. 
When purged and perfect to receive truth's beam 
Pouring itself on the new sense it trusts 

" With all its plenitude of power, — how seem 
Then, the intricacies of shade and shine, 
Oppugnant natures — Right and Wrong, we deem 

" Irreconcilable ? O eyes of mine, 
Freed now of imperfection, ye avail 
To see the whole sight, nor may uncombine 



yOCHANAN HAKKADOSH. IO3 

"Henceforth what, erst divided, caused you quail — 
So huge the chasm between the false and true, 
The dream and the reality ! All hail, 

" Day of my soul's deliverance — day the new, 
The never-ending ! What though every shape 
Whereon I wreaked my yearning to pursue 

" Even to success each semblance of escape 
From my own bounded self to some all-fair 
All-wise external fancy, proved a rape 

" Like that old giant's, feigned of fools — on air, 
Not solid flesh ? How otherwise ? To love — 
That lesson was to learn not here — but there — 

" On earth, not here ! 'T is there we learn, — there 

prove 
Our parts upon the stuff we needs must spoil. 
Striving at mastery, there bend above 

" The spoiled clay potsherds, many a year of toil 
Attests the potter tried his hand upon. 
Till sudden he arose, wiped free from soil 

" His hand, cried ' So much for attempt — anon 
Performance ! Taught to mould the living vase. 
What matter the cracked pitchers dead and gone ? ' 



104 yOCOSERIA. 

" Could I impart and could thy mind embrace 
The secret, Tsaddik ! " " Secret none to me ! " 
Quoth Tsaddik, as the glory on the face 

Of Jochanan was quenched. " The truth I see 
Of what that excellence of Judah wrote. 
Doughty Halaphta. This a case must be 

"Wherein, though the last breath have passed the 

throat, 
So that ' The man is dead ' we may pronounce, 
Yet is the Ruach — (thus do we denote 

" The imparted Spirit) — in no haste to bounce 
From its entrusted Body, — some three days 
Lingers ere it relinquish to the pounce 

" Of hawk-clawed Death his victim. Further says 
Halaphta, ' Instances have been, and yet 
Again may be, when saints, whose earthly ways 

" Tend to perfection, very nearly get 

To heaven while still on earth : and, as a fine 

Interval shows where waters pure have met 

" Waves brackish, in a mixture, sweet with brine, 
That 's neither sea nor river but a taste 
Of both — so meet the earthlv and divine 



yOCHANAN HAKKADOSH. 105 

" And each is either. Thus I hold him graced — 

Dying on earth, half inside and half out, 

Wholly in heaven, who knows ? My mind embraced 

" Thy secret, Jochanan, how dare I doubt ? 

Follow thy Ruach, let earth, all it can, 

Keep of the leavings ! " Thus was brought about 

The sepulture of Rabbi Jochanan 

Thou hast him, — sinner-saint, live-dead, boy-man, — 

Schiphaz, on Bendimir, in Farzistan ! 



Note. — This story can have no better authority than 
that of the treatise, existing dispersedly in fragments of 
Rabbinical writing, d>-t3 C"*2"1 bii7 "^li?!^ from which I 
might have helped myself more liberally. Thus, instead 
of the simple reference to " Moses' stick," — but what if 
I make amends by attempting three illustrations, when 
some thirty might be composed on the same subject, 
equally justifying that pithy proverb ^^ ntt7D 127 ntt^DD 



Moses the Meek was thirty cubits high, 

The staff he strode with — thirty cubits long ; 
And when he leapt, so muscular and strong 



I06 JOCOSE RI A. 

Was Moses that his leaping neared the sky 
By thirty cubits more : we learn thereby 

He reached full ninety cubits — am I wrong ? — 

When, in a fight slurred o'er by sacred song, 
With staff out-stretched he took a leap to try 
The just dimensions of the giant Og. 

And yet he barely touched — this marvel lacked 
Posterity to crown earth's catalogue 

Of marvels — barely touched — to be exact — 
The giant's ankle-bone, remained a frog 

That fain would match an ox in stature : fact ! 



n. 

And this same fact has met with unbelief ! 

How saith a certain traveller ? " Young, I chanced 

To come upon an object — if thou can'st, 
Guess me its name and nature ! 'T was, in brief, 
White, hard, round, hollow, of such length, in chief, 

— And this is what especially enhanced 

My wonder — that it seemed, as 1 advanced, 
Never to end. Bind up within thy sheaf 
Of marvels, this — Posterity ! I walked 

From end to end, — four hours walked I, who go 
A goodly pace, — and found — 1 have not balked 

Thine expectation. Stranger ? Ay or No ? — 
'Twas but Og's thigh-bone, all the while, I stalked 

Alongside of : respect to Moses, though! 



yOCHANAN HAKKADOSH. 10/ 

III. 
Og's thigh-bone — if ye deem its measure strange, 

Myself can witness to much length of shank 

Even in birds. Upon a water's bank 
Once halting, I was minded to exchange 
Noon heat for cool. Quoth I " On many a grange 

I have seen storks perch — legs both long and lank : 

Yon stork's must touch the bottom of this tank, 
Since on its top doth wet no plume derange 
Of the smooth breast. I '11 bathe there ! " " Do not 
so ! " 

Warned me a voice from heaven. " A man let drop 
His axe into that shallow rivulet — 

As thou accountest — seventy )'ears ago : 
It fell and fell and still without a stop 

Keeps falling, nor has reached the bottom yet." 



NEVER THE TIME AND THE 
PLACE. 



NEVER THE TIME AND THE 
PLACE. 



Never the time and the place 

And the loved one all together ! 
This path — how soft to pace ! 

This May — what magic weather ! 
Where is the loved one's face ? 
In a dream that loved one's face meets mine, 

But the house is narrow, the place is bleak 
Where, outside, rain and wind combine 

With a furtive ear, if I strive to speak. 

With a hostile eye at my flushing cheek. 
With a malice that marks each word, each sign ! 
O enemy sly and serpentine. 

Uncoil thee from the waking man ! 
Do I hold the Past 
Thus firm and fast 

Yet doubt if the Future hold I can ? 



112 yOCOSERIA. 

This path so soft to pace shall lead 
Thro' the magic of May to herself indeed ! 
Or narrow if needs the house must be, 
Outside are the storms and strangers : we —• 
Oh, close, safe, warm sleep I and she, 
— I and she ! 



PAMBO. 



PAMBO. 



Suppose that we part (work done, comes play) 

With a grave tale told in crambo 
— As our hearty sires were wont to say — 

Whereof the hero is Pambo ? 

Do you happen to know who Pambo was ? 

Nor I — but this much have heard of him : 
He entered one day a college-class, 

And asked — was it so absurd of him ? — 

" May Pambo learn wisdom ere practise it ? 

In wisdom I fain would ground me : 
Since wisdom is centred in Holy Writ, 

Some psalm to the purpose expound me ! " 

"That psalm," the Professor smiled, " shall be 
Untroubled by doubt which dirtieth 

Pellucid streams when an ass like thee 

Would drink there — the Nine-and-thirtieth. 



Il6 yOCOSERIA. 

" Verse First : I said I will look to my ways 

That I with my tongue offend not. 
How now ? Why stare ? Art struck in amaze ? 

Stop, stay ! The smooth line hath an end knot ! 

" He 's gone ! — disgusted my text should prove 

Too easy to need explaining ? 
Had he waited, the blockhead might find I move 

To matter that pays remaining ! " 

Long years went by, when — "Ha, who 's this ? 

Do I come on the restif scholar 
I had driven to Wisdom's goal, I wis, 

But that he slipped the collar ? 

" What ? Arms crossed, brow bent, thought-im- 
mersed ? 

A student indeed ? Why scruple 
To own that the lesson proposed him first 

Scarce suited so apt a pupil ? 

" Come back ! From the beggarly ele.nents 

To a more recondite issue 
We pass till we reach, at all events. 

Some point that may puzzle . . . Why 'pish' 
you ? " 



PAMBO. WJ 

From the ground looked piteous up the head : 

" Daily and nightly, Master, 
Your pupil plods thro' that text you read, 

Yet gets on never the faster. 

" At the self-same stand, — now old, then young I 
/ will look to my ways — were doing 

As easy as saying ! — that I with my tongue 
Offend not — and 'scape pooh-poohing 

*' From sage and simple, doctor and dunce ? 

Ah, nowise ! Still doubts so muddy 
The stream I would drink at once, — but once ! 

That — thus I resume my study ! " 



Brother, brother, I share the blame, 

Arcades sumus am bo / 
Darkling, I keep my sunrise-aim. 

Lack not the critic's flambeau. 
And look to my ways, yet, much the same, 

Offend with my tongue — like Pambo 1 



1 



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